BlackBerry’s New Secusmart Phone is a Samsung?

The next version of SecuSuite will be compatible with Samsung’s Knox platform.

Secusmart, a subsidiary of BlackBerry showed off it’s new product at the Cebit trade show that took place in Hanover Germany. What may be a surprise to some is that the new product is based in a Samsung Galaxy S7.

BlackBerry’s Secusmart made headlines after it was discovered that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was a victim of wiretapping by the NSA under the Obama administration. Chancellor Merkel, and much of the German government, then ended up receiving tamper proof Secusmart BB10 phones to outmaneuver the NSA.

Since that time, much has changed in the mobile phone space, and Secusmart has rolled with the punches. At a time when the BlackBerry Leap is the last BB10 phone available for purchase direct from BlackBerry, Secusmart worked on getting their product on other phones. The initial phone is a Samsung Galaxy S7 running the Samsung Knox platform.

Why a Samsung? The primary reason is due to a secure boot. At this point, only BlackBerry devices, and Samsung offer a secure boot. But why not BlackBerry?

“Getting these solutions to the security level that the BSI and top-secret government agencies require is very time-consuming,” said BlackBerry Secusmart managing director Christoph Erdmann, “When we started on the Samsung solution, there was no BlackBerry Android, but with the BlackBerry Androids getting up to speed it’s a natural evolution.”

This is also not the first time that Secusmart has worked with Samsung having previously offered the Secusmart Tablet which was based on a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Secusmart offers encrypted communications and encrypted stored data. It also brings BlackBerry Balance to Samsung, allowing a work side and a personal side. Work side data travels through an IPsec VPN while personal side apps work just as they would on any other device.

The phone will go on sale around July and will cost around €1900, which is the same price as the BB10 Secusmart devices.